


Shadows on the Sun

by thrandyrandy



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: 10 years past sozin's comet, AU, Angst, Eventual Zutara, F/F, F/M, Multi, Prophecy, Slow Burn, Spirits, The Spirit World, This is probably going to get pretty dark, Warning: loss of a child/children, actually it starts off pretty dark so sorry for that, fire sages - Freeform, past Katara/Aang, past Zuko/Mai, strap in for a wild ride, this is gonna be a long one kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 21:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18583162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thrandyrandy/pseuds/thrandyrandy
Summary: Ten years after the war, Great Sage Shyu comes to the Fire Lord with a prophecy that will change the world forever.It is time for the cycle to end.From the ashes, a child of both Agni and Yue will rise.





	Shadows on the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do NOT own Avatar: the Last Airbender
> 
> This is my first fanfic in years and also the first on this site so please bear with me. I have a lot of this story planned out but not much written at the moment, but please note that this will diverge greatly from what is 'supposed' to happen at the end of AtLA and thus doesn't lead on to the Legend of Korra. 
> 
> TW: Child abandonment and vague descriptions of stillbirth are included in this chapter

The veil between the Spirit World and the physical world is not uniformly solid. In some places, it is like a wall of ice, miles thick and impenetrable except to those familiar with its smallest cracks. In others, it is more like a rolling fog that on certain days and for certain people can dissipate entirely. 

The Dragonbone Catacombs is one of those sacred places, the great Capital Temple built above its depths to protect the veil from those who might threaten the Spirits – and to protect the people from their wrath. Few are allowed to walk its labyrinthine corridors, and few would want to. Fire Sage initiates are left deep in the Catacombs at times when the veil is thinning, left alone to wander through the dark with no food or water for days at a time. It is thought that only those chosen by the Spirits will find their way back to the Temple. Some go mad, some are never seen again, lost to the depths or to the Spirits themselves, it is not known.

As Sozin’s comet soared above the world for a second time, as the Earth Kingdom was liberated and a war that had raged for a Century came to an end, in the Fire Nation village of Shu Jing, Lu Xien was born. Abandoned by his war widow mother at the Capital Temple, Great Sage Shyu raised the child to follow in his footsteps.

Lu Xien was different from the other initiates. Dreams and visions plagued him even as a child – Shyu could not count the times he was woken in the early hours of the morning by the boy’s sobs. His fire was weak, his constitution weaker, but his connection to the Spirits was strong.

When at the tender age of seven he dreamed of the death of Fire Lord Zuko’s first born child – a daughter, with tufts of silver hair, lifeless and limp in her father’s arms, the Great Sage simply stroked his dark hair and hushed him back to sleep. When two months later Fire Lady Mai went into early labour, he did not think to warn the family of the child’s dreams as he gathered scrolls to perform the blessing and record the birth. Princess Izumi was born still, and when her body was laid to rest in a crypt in the Catacombs a week later (as a child born without fire could not be returned to it), he froze at the sight of her hair.

It was silver, just as Lu Xien had predicted.

Two years later, the dreams returned, more vivid than the first.  

 

_A tall woman with dark hair, one hand resting delicately on her belly, the other covering a larger one. A pained but determined look Fire Lord’s face as he reassures his wife that this time, it will be better. This time they will be more careful, more prepared. The best healers and midwives in the Nation will be there to ensure his child’s survival, he swears it._

 

_They sit in the gardens, the scarred man feeding bread to the turtle ducks as his wife lies under a tree. His hand is on her swollen belly and he is telling his baby, his son, about all the wonderful things they will do together. The beautiful places they will visit. Of how he will be loved and cherished and will never doubt his parents' love or commitment. The baby kicks and the man grins, tears in his eyes as he leans up to kiss his wife. She turns away and his lips fall on her cheek instead. Things have not been the same between them since Izumi, but he hopes this child will bring them together once more._

 

_The dream changes. She is screaming. The Fire Lady is screaming, gripping Zuko’s hand tightly, so tightly that he almost fears she will break it. He will not leave her side, does not care about tradition or superstition. The Water Tribe healer is shaking her head minutely, her hand resting on Mai’s bump as she commands the blood to show her the child. Three other healers in robes of red stand behind her. The Fire Lord screams at her, tells her that she’s wrong, that she needs to leave, that his son will **live** and that he shouldn’t have trusted a water bender to bring a prince of the Fire Nation into the world. She does not leave. His shouts are interrupted by a soul splitting cry from his wife as the child crowns. Seconds later the water bender is holding a bloody bundle in her arms. The Fire Lord’s eyes are wide as a dark hand gloved in water tries to start the boy’s heart. _

_Lu Xien is there too, he is crying, transfixed on the sight before him. He turns to the Spirit standing behind him, its black tendrils resting on his left shoulder like fingers._

_“Don’t do this,” He begs the Spirit, but it does not listen as it walks forward – walks **through** the water bender – and reaches into the child’s chest, taking his soul from his body before slinking back into the shadows with what looks like a crying infant cradled in its arms. _

_The Fire Lord rises from beside the bed and the water bender hands him the baby. He is smaller than his sister, just as pale, with the same silver hair and wrinkled skin. The blue-eyed woman places a hand on his forearm and he pulls away, eyes transfixed on the lifeless form of his son._

_“His name is Iroh.” He whispers, before handing the bundle to his wife who holds him with a blank expression._

_Lu Xien screams as something jerks him backwards and the vision fades._

 

He woke to the sight of the Great Sage kneeling at his bedside, shaking him awake.

“He’s going to die,” The trembling boy cried, tugging on Shyu’s sleeve with tears running down his cheeks. “The baby, it’s going to die, just like Izumi.” Shyu believed him.

The Fire Lord, however, did not. Not until his return to the temple seven months later to place a small body wrapped in white cloth in the crypt next to Izumi.

On his tenth birthday, Lu Xien was blindfolded and placed in the heart of the Catacombs, as dictated by the Order.

After twelve days, the doors to the basement of the Capital Temple were blasted open by fire and the boy collapsed on the exposed rock floor.

“Where is the Great Sage?” He demanded of the sages who rushed to the doors at the sound of an explosion. The boy’s robes were tattered and filthy, his arms red and swollen with burns and his cheeks hollowed by nearly two weeks without food. “I have a prophecy for the Fire Lord.”


End file.
